The invention relates to a machine for the continuous comminution and mixing of materials, especially animal and vegetable media, comprising a mixing chamber in which two conveying passages are arranged each having a conveyor and mixer element, these working in opposite directions, and a comminuting device arranged on one end of these passages.
Prior machines are known, wherein a coarse comminutor is arranged on one end of the conveying and mixing chamber and a very fine comminutor is arranged on the other end. The coarse comminutor consists of cutters fitted radially on a rotating shaft. In the conveying and mixing chamber two trough-like passages lie side by side, the conveyor worms lying therein are formed so that the mixed material is conveyed in opposite directions in the two passages. Thus the one worm feeds the material to the coarse comminutor, the other worm takes over the material or draws it away. The movement of the mixed material is thereby influenced by the conveyor elements. In this known machine there is in a certain sense a circulation. As the conveyor and mixer elements and the coarse comminutor are not adapted in capacity and action to one another for the purpose of circulation, the disadvantage arises for example that a part of the mixed material remains for a lengthy time in the coarse comminutor. This results in undesired heating of the mixed material due to repeated cutting and the different levels of low resistance. An unnecessarily great power requirement is caused by these points of stoppage or accumulation. A time delay also occurs if the cutting and conveying means are not adapted to one another in the cycle. This problem especially occurs in the known apparatus which have the diameter of the coarse comminuting device very much greater than the diameters of the conveying passages and of the mixing and conveying elements arranged therein.
An object of the invention to adapt the comminuting device, the reversing spaces and conveying passages and the conveying and mixing elements to one another in such a manner that the material worked is conducted in a cycle so that with minimum power requirement a comminution and mixing take place rapidly. It is a second object to avoid stoppages and accumulations within this cycle to thereby avoid undesired heating of the mixed materials.